The invention relates to a conveyor track for pallets, in particular for transporting workpieces, the pallet being driven by a first drive means.
Conveyor tracks as described above are used, for example, in transfer lines for transporting workpieces mounted on the pallets between various machining stations. The workpieces, for example engine blocks, are fastened to the pallet and the pallet is transported, together with the workpiece, along a primary conveyor track to various machine tools having different functions. The machining stations are connected to the primary conveyor track by, for example, short secondary conveyor tracks. A control system ensures that the workpieces to be machined are allocated to the correct machining stations. For feeding-in and diverting the pallet from the primary conveyor track to the secondary conveyor track, it is generally necessary to lead the pallet away at right angles to the main conveying direction.
To this end, it is known to divert or transfer the pallets or similar carrying elements laterally, firstly by lifting them using an additional lifter and then placing them by means of the latter onto another, second transport system or conveying means which then conveys the pallets away. In this procedure, two movement operations are therefore necessary, which is correspondingly costly.
The invention has the object of improving a conveying path as described above, such that the pallet is transferred from one drive means to another drive means without the need for the costly transfer apparatus.